The Opening Sequence of Sleepy Hollow

The Opening Sequence of Sleepy Hollow

The very first thing the audience sees when watching this film is a

thick red liquid dripping onto a parchment. Because the audience

expects the film to be a horror film, they automatically think the

liquid is blood. Seeing this image makes the audience assume someone

has been murdered or at least injured. This one picture spurs

questions in a person's mind like, 'who does the blood belong to?' and

'Has someone been killed?' The audience will want these questions

answered, so they will continue to watch. A little later, the audience

sees that the 'dripping blood' is nothing more than sealing wax

dripping onto a page. This surprises them because they did not expect

it to be something as innocent as wax. This theme of blood is

continued throughout film and represents a marker for the next victims

of the Headless Horseman.

Next, images of people's hands are shown, but no faces. This keeps an

air of mystery and makes the audience ask questions again. To whom do

the hands belong? The opening sequence of this film is full of parts

of images. There are less camera angles showing a whole image than

there are showing fragments of images. This makes the audience fill in

the gaps so they can understand what is happening, but what they

imagine is not always correct, so there are lots of opportunities for

them to be taken by surprise.

Behind the hands is a flickering fire that provides the only light and

the only colour other than the sealing wax. The darkness and grey

quality to the scenes makes the film look even more sinister. This

means it lives up the expectations of the audience that know this ...

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...roughout the whole film. The whole of

the audience will know that pumpkins represent Halloween, which is

about witches and ghosts. This reference also reminds the viewers that

the genre is horror.

The man inside the carriage is shown again, then an unnatural sound,

the drawing and slashing of a sword, and the horses braying can be

heard. The audience knows that it must be the

Headless Horseman outside, but all that can actually be seen is the

man inside the carriage that is starting to look very scared. The

unnatural sound is a little like a horse, but it sounds more like a

monster.

When man then looks outside the carriage window, he sees the driver's

head has been chopped off. Although the audience never saw this, they

could predict that this would happen because of the sound effects that

could be heard.